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Onion Recipes

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Beef Kidneys with Ceps and Onions

[Beef Kidneys with Ceps and Onions] Squeamish eaters, avert your eyes, and let me direct you here, here, or perhaps here. For the others, those who don't blanch at the mere mention of the words "tripe" or "beef tongue," those who own a dog-eared copy of the nose-to-tail bible* or have it on their wishlist, here is the dish I made last weekend with the beef kidneys I'd bought from my organic bu...

Braised Lamb Shanks, Grilled Polenta Sandwiches

[Braised Lamb Shanks, Grilled Polenta Sandwiches] ...and this is part III of the dinner I served on Saturday, when I was (at long last) given the opportunity to meet Derrick and Melissa, dear friends from the Blogosphere now happily upgraded to dear friends from the Real World. After a lively chat going in ten different directions -- we were so excited to finally meet, where were we to start? ...

Brussels Sprouts with Onions and Squash Seeds

I have a special fondness for the winter market. Oh, sure, I have to bundle up, wear a woolen cap and good gloves, and by the time I lock my bike to the street sign I've claimed as mine, few of my fingers are available for immediate use. But when I get to my favorite produce stall and the vendors greet me, their jolly smiles clearly say, "thanks for braving the cold!" and I always feel humble ...

Carrot Chestnut Soup

[Carrot Chestnut Soup] Fall officially came into office barely a week ago, and while the weather hasn't been particularly drab (we've even had a few unseasonally beautiful days), it seems as though a giant switch had been flicked in some great control room somewhere: all of a sudden, with no warning at all, I felt like eating soup. So. Veggies were purchased, a cocotte was whipped out (this is...

Chestnut and Chorizo Soup

[Chestnut and Chorizo Soup] This recipe comes from the book "Mes Petits Plats Préférés", by Trish Deseine. She is definitely one of my favorite cookbook authors : her recipes are simple but inventive, and I love her personal and friendly voice. She is also the author of my all-time fave cookbook "Je veux du chocolat!", which I've mentioned in the past. I recently met her at the signing of he...

Chunky Pumpkin Soup

After years of whizzing all of my soups to liquid velvet, I have recently and suddenly become a chunky soup convert. This change of preference happened overnight, and I don't know what prompted it, but ever since the beginning of the fall and the first batches of the season, I can't think of a more desirable soup format than cubes, coins, and ribbons of vegetables intermingling in a broth. Ther...

Kumquat and Pinenut Lamb Stew, Little Polenta Cake

[Kumquat and Pinenut Lamb Stew, Little Polenta Cake] Last week, I had my parents and my sister over for dinner. It had occurred to me that the four of us met most often at my parents', and that it was high time I return the invitation, lest they start to wonder why they couldn't benefit from at least some of the good manners it had taken them years to inculcate in me. Just a few days before th...

Lamb and Orange Khoresh Stew

A favorite from the archives, this post was originally published in April 2009. I know little about Persian cuisine. I do know it is a multifaceted one, that its flavors are refined and its roots run deep, but I have never been to an Iranian restaurant nor an Iranian home -- though now that I think about it, one of the Middle Eastern groceries we went to in California may have been Iranian -- s...

Lentil Kohlrabi Salad

This is the salad I made for lunch the day I moved out of my apartment and into my next-door neighbor's. It's not what you think. Maxence and I have decided that our kitchen and living room -- which are, in fact, in the same room -- needed a facelift, and after months of imagining, planning, and gathering our strength, it looks like it is finally happening. It's anybody's guess how long it's a...

Meat and Vegetable Lasagna

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a reader named Pamela, who said she was working her way through the C&Z archives -- I am so heartened when people do that -- and had noticed, in this older-than-salt post, a reference to the lasagna our friend Zoe made for us when we visited her in London. Did I ever end up sharing that recipe? Pamela asked. The short answer is: no. The long answer is: ...

Nettle Soup

[Nettle Soup] How often do you get to cook with a hostile ingredient? Sure, you could hurt yourself with pretty much anything -- drop a head of celeriac on your toes, rub your eyes after chopping chili peppers, stab yourself with a carrot -- but nettle leaves are actively belligerent. Stinging you is their life calling, it is what they were meant to do, and you can hardly blame them. Wolves wil...

Panzanella

Authenticity can be a fine line to tread when it comes to cooking. Dishes and recipes originate in certain parts of the world and are often deeply rooted in local traditions. But then people emigrate, they travel, they adopt, they adapt, they improvise, and the same dish gets recreated in a different kitchen at a different time, with the same name but a completely different face. Naturally, foo...

Pissaladière

Pissaladière is a specialty from Nice, in the South of France. It's an onion tart with black olives and anchovies, on a thin pizza-like dough. The name comes from "pissalat", a condiment made with pureed anchovies, cloves, thyme and bay leaves, which was spread on the tart before baking. The name has taken on a somewhat looser meaning in my family, and we use it to mean any Mediterranean-style...

Red Onion and Rhubarb, Fresh Cheese and Quince Mini-Tartlets

[Red Onion and Rhubarb Mini-Tartlets / Fresh Cheese and Quince Mini-Tartlets] When I throw a party, even if I'm going to serve food buffet-style, I always try to have a few small nibbles to offer first, at the bar that separates our kitchen from the living-room, which is where everyone tends to linger at first. This allows all of the guests to arrive, get a drink and settle in, before the buffe...

Roasted Onions

Peeling onions is one of my least favorite cooking tasks. The stubborn papery skin that refuses to come away smoothly, the pesky little flakes that get stuck under your fingernails and on the cutting board, not to mention the occasional outer layer that's part flesh part skin (what to do with those?), all conspire to vex me. Yet I adore onions and the pungent or sweet things they do, so I put m...

Smoked Herring and Potato Salad

Harengs pommes à l'huile -- literally, herring and potatoes with oil -- is a great classic among French hors-d'oeuvres, one that you'll still find on brasserie and traditional (or neo-traditional) bistro menus. {I'll take this opportunity to mention this formidable project from the New York Public Library Labs: What's on the menu? is a digitized collection of restaurant menus dating back to th...

Tropical Fish and Nectarine Skewers, Matching Chutney

[Tropical Fish and Nectarine Skewers, Matching Chutney] Yay, it's IMBB time again! Today is the 5th edition of Is My Blog Burning?, the collaborative food blogging event in which food bloggers all over the world unite, and cook something in line with a theme. IMBB is our dear Alberto's brain child, and this fantastic, fun and friendly event has already brought us batches and batches of soup, ta...

Winter Vegetable Curry

Do you want to hear one of the least publicized benefits of working from home? You get sick less often. Not only can you choose to stay in when it's cold and drizzly and icky outside (pyjamas optional), but you also spend less time in crowded public transportation, shake fewer hands and kiss fewer cheeks (in French office environments, it is common to kiss your close colleagues hello when you c...

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